CJ KUDLACZ
A grieving ex-military detective confronts his past after an investigation near his alma mater leads to a haunting encounter with a long-lost love.
She focused, whispering just above the wind. “It’s less difficult, now that I’m just here. Stronger. But there’s still rules. Hurt. Places I can’t go.” Pain flickered across her face again, and she tossed her head a little, relaxing. “I’m sorry, Danny. It’s not so easy for me.”
There wasn’t time, not enough dreams for all the things I wanted to ask her. Even then, I doubted I would make sense of the answers. And not one of them could possibly change anything.
A TIMELY FROST
BRIDGES BETTER BURNED
I watch the first wave of rush hour pulse through downtown Raleigh, the prison casting long shadows over the historic neighborhood to its east, reaching toward the sunset-glistening cluster of high rises just beyond its grasp. I think about all the broken lives that have passed through or ended right here. About everything that I’ve chosen to bury or ignore, instead of dealing with it, moving on. And how many more lives might have been affected as a result. How much of that could have been avoided, and how much might be my fault. It’s time to go home and try to find out. I close my eyes, take a breath to center myself.
“Who is Thomas?” Torres asks. Like she’s some kind of mind reader.
“My brother.”
“He’s writing letters to David in prison?”
“I doubt it. He died. Almost nineteen years ago.”
A disillusioned Hollywood landlord is jolted from his day-to-day obliviousness and onto a
murderous path of self-discovery when he meets a mysterious woman claiming to know about
his forgotten past – and the family tragedy he thought buried long ago.
Photo by Cate Bligh on Unsplash
Photo by Norbert Braun on Unsplash
GOD SAVE THE QUEEN
Assumed dead after a catastrophic shipwreck, an abused mob wife on the run has embraced a mundane new identity when an ethereal encounter with an enigmatic woman sets her on a course toward redemption or revenge. Joining forces with a Hollywood ex-cop in search of his daughter and a disgraced Army vet with a hidden tragedy of her own, she launches a plot to take down her husband’s criminal enterprise and atone for the crimes that haunt her conscience.
She chased the moon until her thighs burned and her shoulders ached, heart fluttering as she realized she was running to something, for a change. Her visions, dreams, whatever you called them, they had always just been suggestions. This was something more. A summons. She flung her head back and coasted to a stop as the trail rolled uphill away from the riverbank, then dismounted and took a minute to lock the bike to a guardrail with trembling hands. Impulsively spontaneous adventure or not, she couldn’t afford to lose it. No tricks for her this Halloween.
Gwen slipped her way downhill to the water, the Crystal River costumed for the night in silver, a molten liquid ribbon descending from her adoptive mountain and the loftier peaks beyond, the names still majestic and thrilling to her transformed soul. Sopris, Capitol, Snowmass. She breathed them in, then shouted again, wide arms and warm exhalation spiraling steam to the heavens. Damp rocks scattered underfoot as she spun.
Ciúin, cailín amadán.
She stopped shouting. Same voice, different language.
Different location.
“Where are you?” she whispered.
When a fallen preacher dies mysteriously mere hours after his release from prison, six of his
former orphan charges – now adults – reluctantly reunite near their old summer camp to reckon
with their shared tragedy and attempt to determine the truth before the lies destroy them all.
CAMP HOSEA
screenplay
INT./EXT. POLICE BOOKING/LANCE’S CABIN FLASHBACK - NIGHT
BEGIN SEQUENCE:
Kit flinches in the glare of booking photos, a few lonesome tears tracking mascara down her face. Face forward. Flash.
KIT (V.O.)
I don’t know. I don’t.
Face left. Flash. Kit screaming over a prone body, hands around its neck. Closeup, hands pushing down, blood flowing.
ETHAN (V.O.)
Katie. Why didn’t you tell us?
Face right. Flash. Kit rising from the body, looking frantically at her hands, police lights flashing ever closer.
KIT (V.O.)
He wouldn’t let me.
Photo by Pat Whelen on Unsplash
An abused teen regains consciousness with a flat tire, an empty gas tank, and his
stepfather's body in the trunk. To save his mother from a prison sentence, he must outrun
his mistakes, the authorities, and an oncoming blizzard to get across the Canadian border.
short story
Photo by Kristaps Grundsteins on Unsplash
FINAL NOTICE
She saved him again, whirling away and stalking back to the Jeep. Her door slammed as they pulled away into the night, Nan offering a hesitant little wave, Summer's profile staring away from him as they faded into the darkness. In another world, he would have grabbed her hand, stopped her. Taken her away with him right then. They’d cross the border, go west. All the way to BC. Vancouver, somewhere by the ocean. Lay low for a year until they were both eighteen, go wherever they wanted. Move to Kentucky, open a garage, pay the bills. He’d learn to like whiskey. Play music and raise a kid and never, ever leave him.